Contents
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Dear Reader
Convincing the Cougar
Blaze of Secrets
Other Works
About the Author
Copyright
To Anne McCaffrey
My teenage years would’ve been incomplete without her dragonrider stories. I also wouldn’t be a writer today without her; she was, and still is, the biggest single influence on my writing career.
Chapter One
Melanie Hall sat in the reception area of the Manchester Dragon Affairs office, tapping her finger against her arm, and wished they’d hurry the hell up. She’d been sitting here for nearly an hour, and with each minute that ticked by, she started to doubt her eligibility. If she didn’t qualify to sacrifice herself to one of the British dragon-shifter clans, her younger brother would die; only the blood of a dragon could cure her brother’s antibiotic-resistant CRE infection.
A woman dressed in a gray suit emerged from the far doorway and walked toward her. When she reached Mel, the woman said, “Are you Melanie Hall?” Mel nodded, and the woman turned. “Then follow me.”
This is it. In a few minutes, she’d know whether her brother Oliver would get the chance to live or if he would die.
Mel rubbed her hands against her black trousers before she stood up and followed the woman. They went down one dull, poorly lit corridor and then turned left to go down another. The woman in the gray suit finally stopped in front of a door that read “Human Sacrifice Liaison” and turned the doorknob. Rather than enter, the middle-aged woman motioned for Mel to go inside. She obeyed, and as soon as she entered the room, the door slammed shut behind her.
A man not much older than her twenty-five years sat at a desk piled high with folders and papers. The room couldn’t be bigger than ten feet by ten feet, but it felt even smaller since every available space on the walls was decorated with different maps of the UK. Some were partitioned into five sections, while others had little pins pushed into them. She had no idea what the pins stood for, but the map divided into five represented the five dragon-shifter clans of the United Kingdom—two in England, one in Scotland, one in Northern Ireland, and one in Wales.
One of which might soon be her home for the next six months.
The man cleared his throat and she moved her attention from the walls to his face. When she met his eyes, he said, “Take a seat.”
Mel sat down in the faded plush chair in front of his desk and decided waiting was the best strategy. She had a tendency to say the wrong thing at the wrong time, and while she usually didn’t mind, right now it could end up costing her brother his life.
The man picked up a file folder and scanned something inside with his eyes, and then set it down. She wanted to scream for him to tell her the results, but she couldn’t do anything to upset him. After all, this man would have the final say over her fate.
The man finally started talking. “Ms. Hall, the genetic testing results say that you are compatible with dragon-shifter DNA and should have no problem conceiving one of their offspring. You also cleared all of the extensive psychological tests. If you’re still interested in sacrificing yourself, we can begin the final interview.”
Mel blinked. Despite her chances being one in a thousand that she could bear a dragon-shifter child, she qualified. Her younger brother would get the needed dragon’s blood and be able to live out a long life free of pain; he now had a future.
Tears pricked her eyes and she closed them to prevent herself from breaking down. Pull yourself together, Hall. Crying was the last thing she wanted to do right now. She couldn’t give the man any reason to dismiss her as a candidate.
“Ms. Hall?”
Mel opened her eyes and gave a weak smile. “I’m sorry, sir. I’m just relieved that my brother will live.”
“Yes, yes, the exchange. But we have a lot to cover before we get to the contract specifics, so if you’re quite composed, I’ll carry on.” Mel sat up straight in her chair and nodded. The man continued. “Right. You are healthy, genetically compatible, fertile, unattached, and not a virgin, which are the five requirements needed to qualify. Sacrificing yourself means that you will go to live with Clan Stonefire for a period of six months, and be assigned a temporary male. You will consent to his sexual attentions, and if you become pregnant, you understand that your stay will be extended until after the child is born. If you have any questions, any at all, now is the time to ask them.”
She had heard the basics of this before, but now that she’d passed all of the tests, she had a moment of panic. As much as she wanted to save her brother—and she would save him—being assigned to have sex with an unknown male dragon-shifter was more than a little scary. Especially since many human women died in the process of birthing half dragon-shifter babies.
If the death-by-baby aspect wasn’t bad enough, she was putting her life on hold to do this. Mel was one thesis away from earning her PhD in Social Anthropology. If she became pregnant and survived the delivery, she wasn’t sure she could just give up the child and walk away. Most of the women sacrifices who lived past the delivery did it, but no matter how different the dragon-shifters were from humans, Mel wouldn’t be one of them. Family meant everything to her.
And if she didn’t give up her child, she would have to give up her dreams in order to spend the rest of her life with Clan Stonefire.
She took a deep breath and remembered her brother Oliver, pale and thin in his sickbed, and her worry dissipated to a manageable level. Even if she became a mother before she’d planned, she would do it three times over to give Oliver a chance to see past his fifteenth birthday.
Still, she wasn’t about to pass up this opportunity to ask some questions. The dragon-shifters were extremely private, rarely sharing anything that happened on their land with the public. “I understand consenting to sexual activity, as my main purpose is to help repopulate the dragon-shifters, but what guarantees are in place to ensure I’m not abused or neglected?”
The man leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers in front of him. “I understand your concern, but the UK Department of Dragon Affairs conducts routine inspections and interviews. Childbearing-related mortality aside, over the last ten years, only one sacrifice has ever received harsh treatment out of hundreds.”
With colossal effort, she managed not to think about her fifty-fifty chance of surviving childbirth. “And what about my friends and family? Can I communicate with them?”
“Communication is forbidden for the first six weeks. After that, it is entirely up to your assigned male as to whether you can communicate or not. From experience, the women who made the greatest effort to conceive were awarded the most privileges.”
Right. So if she became a sex goddess, she could talk with her family. How she was going to accomplish that—her previous boyfriends had told her she was “good enough” but never fantastic—she had no idea. But she would cross that bridge when she came to it.
“And lastly, when will my brother receive his treatment and when will I leave for the dragons’ compound?”
“Once our legal representative has gone through the contract with you and it’s been signed and witnessed, a copy will be sent to Clan Stonefire. They should approve it within a matter of days and deliver the vial of dragon’s blood to your brother’s physician. Normally, you’d be expected to arrive within a week. However, in the case of dying relatives, you’re given two weeks to set your affairs in order and to be assured that your brother is recovering. Our office will notif
y you of the particulars within the next five days.”
The man picked up a pen and signed something inside the manila folder on his desk. He picked up a piece of paper and held it out to her. “Since you’ve had a rational conversation without breaking down or bursting into tears, I think you’re mentally sound enough to be sacrificed. If you have no further questions, you can proceed to the legal department.”
Even at this late stage of the application process, she now understood how some candidates might be scared off. Hearing about no communication with the outside world as well as how giving birth to a half-dragon baby might kill you was a lot to take in. But Melanie wasn’t doing this for herself; she was doing it for her brother. Oliver had had a shitty last few years fighting off cancer only to beat it and end up with a drug-resistant infection that was slowly killing him.
Her funny, clever brother deserved a chance to live and enjoy life.
She reached out and took the paper. She said, “Thank you. I’m still interested. Please tell me where the legal department is located, and I’ll go there straightaway.”
He gave her the directions. Mel thanked the man before leaving his office and making the necessary turns. As she approached the last turn, she glanced down at the paper in her hands. Toward the bottom of the sheet, the man had checked “approved” and signed his name. Seeing it in black and white started to make the whole situation feel that much more real.
In less than two weeks, she would go to live with the dragon-shifters and be expected to have sex with one of their males.
She took a deep breath and pushed back the sense of panic. She wasn’t forced; she had volunteered. While she didn’t know how her assigned dragonman would treat her, there was one thing she had to look forward to—the men were rumored to be fit and muscled. For once in her life, Melanie would get to sleep with a strong, hot man. She only hoped he wouldn’t be a complete bastard.
~~~
Tristan MacLeod knocked on the door of Stonefire’s clan leader. When he heard a muffled, “Come in,” he twisted the knob and entered.
Bram Moore-Llewellyn, Stonefire’s clan leader and Tristan’s friend of nearly thirty years, sat behind the old, sturdy oak desk that had been used by leaders of this clan for over a hundred years. It was beat up with more than a few scratches from young dragon-shifters trying out their talons. Tristan thought it looked like shit, but dragons were big on tradition and Stonefire’s clan leader was no exception.
Bram motioned for Tristan to come in and sit in one of the wooden chairs in front of his desk. Tristan shut the door and complied.
While he had a feeling he knew what this meeting was about, he asked, “You wanted to see me?”
Bram put aside the papers he’d been reading and looked up at him. “It’s time, Tristan.”
Fuck. He’d hoped it wouldn’t be this. “Can’t one of the volunteer males have another turn? Putting me together with a human is a bad idea, Bram, and you know it.”
Bram leaned back in his chair and shook his head. “No. I can’t risk the gene pool getting too small. Neither you nor your sister has had any young, and since you’re the elder, you’re first in line. I hate to be a hardass, but if you refuse to pair with the latest human sacrifice, I’ll have to kick you out of the clan.”
“Right, and put me at the mercy of the dragon hunters. I don’t really have a choice, do I?”
Bram shook his head. “No. But since I’m more than just your leader, and I’m also your friend, I waited until a decent candidate came along before I picked you.” He shuffled through a stack of papers, found what he was looking for, and held it out to Tristan. “Read her mini-summary.”
As much as he didn’t want to do it, Tristan took the paper and read the one paragraph summary:
Melanie Hall is a twenty-five year old female. Her reason for volunteering as a sacrifice is to heal her brother from a life-threatening disease. Currently, she is a PhD candidate in Social Anthropology at the University of Manchester. Her main interest is the history of human-dragon relations. Her psychological interview showed her to be a strong-willed, determined, and loyal individual who places family above all else. The Dragon Affairs office recommends pairing her with a likewise strong male to avoid unintended manipulation.
He looked up. “So rather than give me a female who will just let me fuck her and walk away, you’re giving me one that will probably fight me every step of the way? Are you sure you’re my friend?”
Bram smiled. “She’ll be good for you. A weaker willed human who would let you fuck her and walk away would prevent you from overcoming your prejudice against humans.”
Tristan narrowed his eyes. “Don’t bring my dead mother into this.”
Bram’s smile faded. “It’s my job to help you, and by extension, strengthen our clan. You can’t keep hiding yourself away by spending all of your time training the young dragons. It’s been ten years, Tristan. You need to let it go and focus on what you can do in the here and now, which is to help our clan—and all dragon-shifters, for that matter—from going extinct.”
“It’s not my bloody fault our numbers are so low. The humans hunted us for thousands of years. The only reason the human governments have created protections for us in the last two decades is the deal we made when we exposed the secret of our blood, to end the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. To this day, they only value us for the healing properties of our blood and are willing to throw women our way—and possibly kill them in childbirth—to get it.”
“I don’t care about any of that. Let them value us for our blood. In the meanwhile, the dragon-shifters need to repopulate so that one day we don’t need to rely on this barter system to survive.” Bram pierced him with his blue-eyed alpha stare. “Now, read the damn contract and sign it. Our healers are waiting for you to shift so they can draw the necessary amount of blood to complete our end of the agreement.”
Tristan could refuse and walk away. Despite the shitty odds, he would probably do just that if it were only him. But he couldn’t abandon his sister Arabella; especially as he was the only family she had left.
And damn Bram, he knew that.
Tristan held out his hand. “Give me the bloody contract. But if you think this is going to magically cure my hatred of humans, you’re in for a surprise.”
His friend handed over the papers. “We’ll see, Tristan. We’ll see.”
Chapter Two
Melanie stood with her parents in front of the well-guarded entrance to Stonefire’s land. She knew someone from the clan would arrive at any minute to take her inside, but saying goodbye to her parents was harder than she’d imagined. She was a grown woman, for crying out loud. Yet as she looked from her mom to her dad and back again, she realized that this might be the last time she ever saw them, unless her assigned male granted her privileges. Yeah, the idea of a male being in charge of what she could and couldn’t do didn’t sit well with her, but she’d have to suck it up if she wanted to survive.
She really couldn’t say anything to ease their worry, and she’d never been good at lying. Still, she forced a smile and decided to stretch the truth a little. “Mom, Dad, it’ll be all right. Just look after Oliver for me. I expect a full report once I have access to a phone line again.”
Her dad cupped her cheek. “I know everything is done, but I wish you would’ve talked to us about this, Mel. We could’ve found another way.”
She stared at her father with his slightly balding head and wire rim glasses, careful to burn the image into her memory. “You know there was no other way. Without an injection of dragon’s blood, Oliver would have died. I’m aware of the risks in doing this, and Dad, I’m more than old enough to make my own decisions.”
“I know, love. But we’re going to miss you on the annual summer holiday to Scotland this year.”
She might be a grown woman, but her family had a tradition that Mel still looked forward to. Every year they took a trip to Scotland, and every year they visited a different castle. Her p
arents were determined to visit each and every one before they died, and the thought of her missing out on the trip for the first time in over twenty-years made her chest tighten.
Mel cleared her throat. “Just make sure it’s one of the dodgy, crap castles, and then I won’t be that upset to miss it.”
Her British dad then pulled her into a hug, the action very much the influence of Mel’s American mother. He said against her hair, “I love you, Mel-bell, and I don’t know how I’ll ever thank you for saving Oliver’s life.”
Mel squeezed and stepped back from her father. “Just take care of him.” She looked over to her mother, who was being unusually quiet. “Mom?”
Without saying a word, her mother rushed over and embraced her. Mel closed her eyes and held her mom tight, memorizing the light lilac scent of her mother’s lotion. Then Mel said, “I love you, Mom.”
“I love you too, dear.” Her mother pulled back and took Mel’s face in her hands. “You can call us and let us know about anything, anything at all, once you have access to a phone.”
She fought the tears in her eyes and forced a smile. “Of course.”
Her mother’s face went stern. “I mean it. I don’t care if my grandchild ends up being half-dragon, I will love him or her with all of my heart.”
At that remark, tears started to roll down Mel’s cheeks. “You don’t know how much that means to me, Mom.”
Her mother patted her cheek. “I don’t care what the rest of the world thinks; my family comes first, no matter what their genetic heritage.”
Mel pulled her mother into another hug. While pregnancy was highly likely, she’d been afraid her parents wouldn’t approve if she did have a child. But she should have known better than to doubt her parents.
She had taken them for granted all these years. If she survived the birth and ever got out, she’d treasure them, as they deserved to be treasured.
Sacrificed to the Dragon: Part One Page 1
